Father Maassen's Message - 08/18/24

Dear Missionary Disciples of Christ, 
   For these last weeks, we have been proclaiming parts of the Gospel of John, Chapter 6. I would highly encourage you to read this chapter and all the Gospels. Our Lord is unequivocal. “Amen, amen I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day” (Jn 6: 53-54)—the reason why the celebration of the Mass, the Eucharist, is so critical. 
  The Eucharist, as the source and summit of the Christian life, is the focal point of our faith. The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch (Catechism 1324). The Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God by which the Church is kept in being. It is the culmination of God’s action sanctifying the world in Christ and of the worship men offer to Christ and through him to the Father in the Holy Spirit (Catechism 1325). “Under the consecrated species of bread and wine, Christ himself, living and glorious, is present in a true, real, and substantial manner: his Body and his Blood, with his soul and his divinity” (Catechism 1413). 
  In the Gospel of John, Chapter 6, we read that many no longer accompanied Jesus. They could not accept His teaching. Often, I think we are influenced by what we hear people say about Jesus or His teaching. Often, they are incorrect. There are two primary sources for Jesus Christ’s actual teaching: the Tradition of the Catholic Church (what the apostles taught, said, and did) and the Sacred Scripture, especially the Gospels. This is why it is so important to read the Gospels and learn our Catholic faith. Two thousand years ago, many of His disciples no longer walked with him. They left because they didn’t like Jesus Christ’s teaching. 
  Many today still do not accept Jesus’ teaching on the Eucharist, marriage, and morality in general. I encourage all of us to echo the words of St. Peter: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” 
 
 In Christ, Father Maassen                                                                            *reprinted with permission of Father Maassen